His Homework, My Assignment - Fruit Basket

We thought this was an exception when there was no holiday homework for Evans during the one week's term break. Turned out there were 2 handicrafts which he was supposed to submit after school reopened 1) a lantern and 2) a fruit basket!!! The teacher communicated these through the parents chatgroup and somehow hubby did not get the message as his mobile is full with data.

SHOCKED. And super last minute to think of what to do. YouTube is my best friend. Despite feeling tired, I diligently searched for the easiest way to make these crafts.

Forgot to take a photo of the lantern we made but it's those china angpao lantern ball. Quite simple to do. And for the fruit basket, we tried the origami style. Managed to do it, though don't think it fits the using recyclables part.

Another Missed Excursion

A replay of the episode when Evans has to miss a school outing cos he was not feeling well. Last time he had to miss the Changi Beach excursion due to diarrhoea,  today he has to miss the excursion to Tampines Giant due to stomach flu, similar to the last episode.

He was disappointed and so am I!  I know he has been looking forward to this day. Yesterday after school he complained about stomachache and then he couldn't eat lunch. He threw up his school's meal instead. I was thinking "oh not again.... he is going to miss the outing?!" Mama suspected he couldn't take the cabbage and carrot porridge, especially when it was rainy. Not too sure. He had a nap yesterday and woke up pretty well. Even though we didn't give him any dairy, he still complained about tummy pain on and off. My heart dropped when he vomitted at 1plus am today. His puke was on everywhere.... mattress, PJ, blanket... My parents got to spend some time cleaning up after him. But I think they are pretty organised and systematic. Cleared the mess quite fast. So ended up Evans slept with them on the bed. This time I was thinking there is a chance that he will miss the Giant trip. *sad*

At 720am Evans woke up smiley and expressed he was good to go Giant! I really hate to spoil it so I was also a lil hopeful that he was ok to go, though my mama was not comfortable. Frankly I didn't want him to miss this not cos we paid  $10 for this but more of the trip will cover topics on fruitsand vegetables, with money concept. It would be interesting for Evans! 

Mama said Evans was a lil warm, suspecting of a fever. But our thermometer measured normal. We were on the fence.... part of us wanted him to go enjoy, part of us wasn't comfortable as he might feel worse after the trip. In the end my mama still brought him to school after much begging. BUT he was sent back home because they spotted fever. No doubt Evans was very sad with tears. I appeased him that I would bring him to Giant during school holiday and we will learn about the fruits and vegetables with money concept!!! But I know he is still very disappointed.

Brought him to our usual PD and found that he has colic and stomach flu (again). So no dairy and light meals only. Poor boy boy got to eat some medicines for vomiting and stomachache. And we always have to feed with care as now it is not so easy to feed him if the medicine tastes yucky. He tends to puke. We don't want that!!!!! So standby the giam sng dee....

SIGH and it is contagious so can't be near Eden..... get well soon ah, Evans!!!!!!!!

An Overprotective Ah Ma

Had a long meeting with Evans's teacher and the Ah Ma yesterday after school. Why? It all started just because of an incident in class on Monday.

In a nutshell, when returning a pencil to a corner of the classroom, Evans was holding the pencil with the lead exposed. His classmate "I" was jumping around and the accident happened. The pencil lead scratched "I"'s face, just underneath his eye. But apparently "I" didn't cry. Teacher called in "I"'s ah ma and my bro on Monday to explain what happened. My bro translated to Ah Ma and also apologised to her. And we thought story would end there.

But no, with the Ah Ma being superduper protective and couldn't let it go... she mumbled about the incident and she kept saying accidents must be prevented. I think Teacher did tell my mom to ignore Ah Ma but the last straw came and my mama raised her voice at the Ah Ma. Yesterday upon reaching the classroom, the Ah Ma directed her remarks at Evans saying that seeing his appearance like the gentle / decent kind, didn't expect him to be so naughty. My mama quickly asked Evans into the class and she confronted the Ah Ma to repeat her sentence. Ah Ma just quickly walked away. My mama was furious when she described the episode. I was very upset by the Ah Ma's behaviour. Luckily my mama said Evans seemed unaffected, a bit blur of what happened.

I decided to speak with teacher when I picked him up from school. But before I could speak to teacher, I saw the Ah Ma with her grandson outside the classroom and she seemed like she had something to tell me. I asked her and she blabbered about the accident. I told her firmly that what happened was an ACCIDENT. What does she need from us to move on. And I lectured her that it was INAPPROPRIATE of her to talk to a 5 year old like that! Of course she digressed or whatever... her thinking wasn't very logical at times. In short she wanted all accidents to be prevented and especially for her grandson.

Teacher asked us into the classroom and told me not to talk to Ah Ma first. While Ah Ma kept asking us questions about the incident, I distracted Evans to talk about other things and ignore her. Teacher was also upset with Ah Ma for not giving them a chance to move on. Ah Ma kept dwelling on the incident and added on a few more scenarios where she observed there could be potential accidents like the kids should not be lying on the floor cos they would trip people, especially her grandson who would not know how to say "Excuse me"; teacher should not call the kids to return the pencils because different people hold it differently and can poke others... Teacher tried his best to explain to her that the kids need to learn and this is part of training them to be independent. Ah Ma didn't buy it and she repeated those scenarios again and again like a broken record. Finally the VP came and she sensed this Ah Ma was not convinced so she tried to appease her. Thankfully I did not have to translate anymore so that the meeting could end soon. Ah Ma's key point was to pay more attention to her grandson and she wanted no more incidents. She felt the teachers did not do a good job. So the VP said from now on, her grandson will stick with teacher once he stepped into class but she would not be able to guarantee her grandson would be happy. And she would tell the teachers to keep the pencils for the kids. I know this is just an interim solution to appease that Ah Ma.

The kids were asked to hug ah ma and me. I felt sorry for Evans when teacher asked him to apologise to Ah Ma since she was still upset. Evans was a little bit on the verge of tearing, and the same went for me. Such a small matter... and we made it look like a huge mistake. But it was just for a moment, then Evans was back to his cheerful self.

I just hope the Ah Ma can move on and stop her nonsense, causing so much unhappiness. And I hope she could give her grandson more trust so that he could have fun in learning.

And Evans, good job for being understanding.

Open House with Parents-Teacher Meeting

Evans was looking forward to this day where I could join him at the preschool's open house and parents-teacher meeting. It was a new concept. Typically the PTM is a scheduled session with the teachers to talk about the progress of our kids but this time round, they wanted to make it different by combining the open house with the meeting.

I was glad to see what was happening in the classroom and I got to see the kind of activities Evans did at the different corners with his friends. They did their singing, like how they normally would do in class. Teacher demonstrated how he encouraged the kids by giving them stars (stickers). He said he wanted to give Evans's mommy 2 stars for trying her best. LOL! I think because I did the song actions, despite my very pregnant state.

Teacher also shared how he encouraged the students to behave with the use of positive words and gestures, instead of labelling the child as "naughty". He strongly believed in encouragement than punishment. He shared that the word "punishment" carried a serious connotation so he would refrain from using it. Instead he would use "consequences". It was a refreshing thought and reminded us as parents to be wary of the words we used on our child. But habit is hard to kill and I realised I do use the word "naughty" often. Haha!

Caught sight of Evans's drawing of his friend.

His assignment to make the mandarin oranges

I had a good chat with Teacher on Evans's progress in class and noted that Evans still needs to build up on his confidence in speaking in a large group in class. But teacher did share that he has shown improvement in this aspect. The little boy is definitely more talkative at home than in class. Teacher did share at times Evans can get very active and chatty but there are also quiet time, just like us, adults when sometimes we feel like talking and sharing but at others, we just want to stay quiet. He said academically, Evans has no issues but need some practice in terms of motor skills. So let him try more cutting, just simple actions of cutting straight lines will help. Point taken. 

Evans enjoyed the open house activities, particularly the sand and the making of onigiri. Oh we also got to have a chat with MP Desmond Choo (again). Haha! We chatted as if we knew each other for some time but I doubted he remember speaking to me in the earlier open house last year.

Evans with his favourite teacher, Ms Hu who has known him since N1

Evans's favourite activity of all, proudly presenting his onigiri

My little boy seemed to have grown up a little, being able to mingle with his friends yet he is still attentive to me; not having to chase him around. I am thankful for his mannerism.